$1.75 SATURDAY/SUNDAY, JULY 20-21, 2013 TWITTER.COM/KDNSPORTS WWW.KETCHIKANDAILYNEWS.COM 32 PAGES

Obama speaks outTrouble latePresident discussesZimmerman verdict, A-5

Late Juneau surge tops Junior Leaguers, A-6

Please don’t shoot the drones: Feds remind public it’s a crime to take aim at unmanned aircraft, A-12

61º/52º

Weather, page A-3

SPORTS • WORLD • ALASKA • NATION Today’s Trivia: Who is Ketchikan’s new assistant district

attorney? Answer, Page A-2

Ketchikan, Alaska

VOL. 85 NO. 169 (USPS 293-940)

Page B-1: State official defends cruise ship water regswww.ketchikandailynews.com

©2013

By BECKY BOHRERAssociated Press

JUNEAU — A record number of climbers summitedNorth America’s highest peak this season.

The National Park Service said 787 of the 1,151 reg-istered climbers reached the summit of Mount McKin-ley in Alaska this year. That’s a summit percentage of68 percent, the highest since 1977, when the summitpercentage was 79 percent. In 1977, 284 of the 360climbers who attempted to scale the peak did so.

The number of climbers to reach the summit hastopped 700 in only four other years: 1994, 2001, 2005and 2008, according to park statistics. The previoushigh was 775 in 2005.

“It was a well-above-average year,” said MaureenMcLaughlin, a spokeswoman for Denali National Parkand Preserve. “The major factor in a strong summityear versus a not-so-strong one is good weather, andthis past May and June saw “long stretches of warmtemperatures, clear skies and mild winds.”

The actual number of registered climbers this yearwas the lowest since 1997, when there were 1,110 at-tempts.

Mount McKinley — widely known in Alaska as De-nali — is never closed to climbing, but the primaryseason typically runs from the end of April throughthe middle of July, with mid-May to mid-June beingthe most popular, McLaughlin said.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the first

RecordMcKinleynumbers

See ‘Record numbers,’ page A-3

By TOM KRISHERAssociated Press

DETROIT — Four years ago, America’s Big Threeautomakers mortgaged all they owned or went intobankruptcy court to keep from going broke.

Since then, General Motors, Chrysler and Ford haveall returned to full financial health, unlike Detroit it-self, which filed for bankruptcy Thursday after yearsof painful decline.

So why can’t the Motor City use bankruptcy totransform itself in the same way? Unfortunately forDetroit, it’s not that simple. Automakers were able toshed most of their problems in bankruptcy court andcome out leaner and more competitive. The city canget rid of its gargantuan debt, but a bankruptcy judgecan’t bring back residents or raise its dwindling rev-enue.

“In General Motors, at least you could have thisdream about there being increased revenues in the fu-ture,” said Douglas Baird, a bankruptcy law professorat the University of Chicago. “It’s much harder to dothat in the case of a city like Detroit because it doesn’tsell a product.”

Detroit, which filed the largest municipal bank-ruptcy case in American history, owes as much as $20billion to banks, bondholders and pension funds. It hasrevenue of about $1.1 billion per year, a number thatdrops by about $100 million annually. And it’s bur-dened with a running deficit of $327 million.

The city had to borrow $80 million from Bank ofAmerica last year just to keep the lights on.

Bankruptcydiffers forcities andbusinesses

See ‘Bankruptcy challenges,’ page A-4

The day’s rain didn’t keep kids in their homes or rockets onthe ground July 12 as 10 participants launched their homemadedevices hundreds of feet into the air.

The rocketry camp is put on by the Juneau Economic Devel-opment Council as part of its STEM AK program. STEM refersto science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The First Bank helped to fund the program, subsidizing theregistration fees, allowing more students to attend. STEMcourses are a significant part of workforce development, saidSheila Kleinschmidt, First Bank community development officer,and therefore, a big part of community development.

“[Camps] sometimes get cancelled because of lack of registra-tion so we support the camp to help those who maybe wouldn’tbe able to attend because of cost,” she said.

Kleinschmidt was on hand at the rocket launch to see whatthe kids learned and share in their fun.

“Besides, who doesn’t like shooting bottle rockets and fire-works into the air?” she said with a laugh as a rocket launched,releasing candy into the air.

The candy-filled rocket was built by Nicole Embree, theyoungest day-camper at 11 years old. Her mother, Jessie Embree,was on hand to cheer and record the launch with its airbornetreats. Embree said Nicole received an age waiver to attend theclass because she is below the minimum age of 13.

The camp encouraged the students to use their creativitywhen building the rockets. Many projectiles used empty plastic

bottles and paper towel tubes. Emmily Smith, 13, built a rocketas part of a group that used an uncooked egg for the nose.

“We felt like being challenged,” she said of the group. “Youcould put a camera on it or candy in it... or an egg.”

Smith said she really enjoyed the camp, calling it “awesome”and “really cool.”

“I like science, rockets and making things move so I reallywanted to [participate],” she said.

Overall, four girls and six boys attended the day camp, whichtook place at the Robertson Building at the University of AlaskaSoutheast Ketchikan campus July 8-12. They met every day tolearn about the physics and science behind rocketry. During theweek they created their own rockets, looking forward to the lastday of camp, when they would launch them.

Eric Bookless, camp instructor, is a sophomore at the Univer-sity of Alaska Fairbanks and studying me-chanical engineering. He has beenworking for the JEDC for the past fewsummers helping teach the rocketrycamp. This was his first year teachingsolo and he said he thought it wentwell.

“I wasn’t 100-percent sure what to ex-pect, but all the kids were great and itwas fun,” Bookless said. “Wasn’t expectingthe rain for the last day, but what are yougonna do?”

A good time had by all at

Rocket

C amp

Nicole Embree makes last-minute repairs to her rocket in the rain recently at Nor-man Walker Field with the help of instructor Eric Bookless. Below, she launches.

Story by Marjorie Clark Photos by Hall Anderson Ketchikan Daily NewsSee morecamp

pictures, page A-12

787 people reachsummit this year

Detroit seeks anautomaker-like rally

By JOAN LOWYAssociated Press

WASHINGTON — People who fireguns at drones are endangering thepublic and property and could beprosecuted or fined, the Federal Avia-tion Administration warned Friday.

The FAA released a statement in re-sponse to questions about an ordi-nance under consideration in the tinyfarming community of Deer Trail,Colo., that would encourage huntersto shoot down drones. The administra-tion reminded the public that it regu-lates the nation’s airspace, includingthe airspace over cities and towns.

A drone “hit by gunfire could crash,causing damage to persons or prop-erty on the ground, or it could collidewith other objects in the air,” the state-ment said. “Shooting at an unmannedaircraft could result in criminal orcivil liability, just as would firing at a

manned airplane.”Under the proposed ordinance,

Deer Trail would grant hunting per-mits to shoot drones. The permitswould cost $25 each. The town wouldalso encourage drone hunting byawarding $100 to anyone who pres-ents a valid hunting license and iden-tifiable pieces of a drone that has beenshot down.

Deer Trail resident Phillip Steel, 48,author of the proposal, said in an inter-view that he has 28 signatures on a pe-tition — roughly 10 percent of thetown’s registered voters. Under Col-orado law, that requires local officials toformally consider the proposal at ameeting next month, he said. Town of-ficials would then have the option ofadopting the ordinance or putting it onthe ballot in an election this fall, he said.

The proposed ordinance is mostly asymbolic protest against small, civil-

ian drones that are coming into use inthe United States, Steel said. He ac-knowledged that it’s unlikely there areany drones in use near Deer Trail.

“I don’t want to live in a surveil-lance society. I don’t feel like being ina virtual prison,” Steel said. “This is apre-emptive strike.”

He dismissed the FAA’s warning.“The FAA doesn’t have the power tomake a law,” he said.

The FAA is working on regulationsto safely integrate drones into theskies over the U.S., where mannedaircraft are prevalent. The Congressgave the FAA until 2015 to develop theregulations, but the agency is behindschedule. FAA officials have estimatedthat once regulations are in place,thousands of drones will be in useacross the country for a wide varietyof purposes, from helping farmers fig-ure out which crops need watering to

tracking sea lions in remote rocky out-croppings to aiding search and rescuemissions.

But the Deer Trail proposal is thelatest ripple in a spreading backlashagainst drones. Dozens of laws aimedat curbing the use of the unmannedaircraft have been introduced in statesand cities. Privacy advocates have ex-pressed fear that police will usedrones to cheaply and effectively con-duct widespread surveillance withoutwarrants.

The Association for Unmanned Ve-hicle Systems International, a droneindustry trade group, was concernedenough last year about people threat-ening to shoot down drones that it is-sued a statement warning that suchcomments were “irresponsible, dan-gerous and unlawful.”

Michael Toscano, president andCEO of the group, expressed similar

concerns Friday, saying drones “arebeing designed to serve the publicgood....The myriad of important useswill be imperiled if they become tar-gets. ... The suggestion that Americanstake up arms against unmanned air-craft also endangers citizens on theground.”

N AT I O NA-12 Saturday/Sunday, July 20-21, 2013

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FAA warns public: Don’t shoot at drones

Rocket Guys and GalsStaff photos by Hall Anderson

Emmilee Smith sets up her rocket in preparationfor launching at Norman Walker Field recently.

Corrie Embree watches a rocket being launched recently at NormanWalker Field.

Chance Dyakanoff and Emmilee Smith watch a rocket takeoff at Norman Walker Field during a rainy day recently.

See our photo gallery at:

ketchikandailynews.com